Afraid
by jakelsx
Summary: Glenn doesn't know much about women. So God knows how he ever ended up with Maggie. Glenn's thoughts on Maggie Greene.


Glenn didn't know much about women. Honestly, he didn't know what periods were until he was fifteen and that was just sad. Sure, he had sisters but the only thing they taught him was not to mess with the female type. Stay back, smile, be nice, and don't act stupid, his sisters said when he asked them about girls.

So God knows how he ever ended up with Maggie.

The first time he met her (unofficially), she rode in on horseback and sliced off a walker head. Now that he thinks about it, he didn't get a very good look at her face. He was just shocked. The only time he's ever seen someone ride on a horse was from behind a fence or on TV.

The first time he actually met her, she was just sitting on the porch by herself. If he had more time to think about it, he probably would have said something more charming. But Carl was dying, T-Dog was bleeding out, and Rick and Lori needed him. Still, he was taken aback by her natural beauty. He never knew a woman could leave him breathless.

He watched her stand up to Shane, protect her family's farm, and then see it burned down to the ground. He watched her see her father's leg get chopped off. He watched her hold the baby of a woman she just gave a C-section to. He watched her stand tall against the Governor and then resolutely kill a man.

"Have you ever thought about how awesome you are?" Glenn asks her one day. He sits on their bed at the prison as Maggie puts up their latest home décor: a painting of a flower.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Maggie snorts.

"You're better than Xena. God, I bet you're good at video games too."

"Don't get your hopes up."

"I'm just saying…"

Maggie turns around and throws a towel at him. "You're just saying we've got fifteen minutes till the showers get busy so take off your shirt and let's go."

Glenn just lets a ridiculous grin wash over his face and does as he's told.

Maggie didn't break. At least not on the outside. Whenever she was around other people who need her strength, her resilience, she provided it. After Michonne lost Andrea, Maggie sat by her for a long time. There was a sense of solidarity between them, knowing that the man who hurt them was still out there but at least for this moment, they were going to keep going. Maggie never lost a step after the Governor incident. Nor did she falter after Lori's death. Or Hershel's leg.

Then again, there are other times.

He watched her mourn after Otis, break down after he saved her in the pharmacy, lament after the farm. He watched her at her most vulnerable, when she laid naked in his arms, pouring her heart out to him. He watched her crack when they put a gun to his head. He watched her cry after he proposed.

It was funny. The Maggie out there didn't scare him at all. The one who looked a man in the eye and killed him. The one who could slaughter walkers like clockwork. The thought of her made him feel proud and safe.

It was the one in their bed whom he was afraid of. There weren't a lot of people who saw her the way he did. When they're alone, she suddenly becomes small. She leans on him a lot and buries herself in his arms. The aggression is gone after they make love. She just rests her head against his and lies there. She slowly closes her eyes and smiles lovingly at him. She plants soft kisses along his jawline, over his nose, his eyes.

"I love you," she whispers.

"I love you too," he whispers back. He pulls the blanket over them and caresses the soft skin on her arm. She sighs contently and nuzzles back into him.

Sometimes, she wakes up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat. Glenn rubs her back soothingly and whispers sweet nothings into her ear but he could still hear her muffled sobs.

"It was the Governor," she would say.

Or maybe, "It was dad."

Or, "It was Beth."

But the nights it was the worst, when her whole body shivered, when she couldn't go back to sleep, it would be, "It was you."

It shocked Glenn at first. Like the first time she said she loved him. But then it just made him afraid. "I can't lose you," she mutters. "I won't."

"You're not going to." He hugs her close. "Hey, I'm with you."

Glenn Rhee didn't know much about women, but he did know that Maggie Greene was strongest, bravest, most capable woman he's ever met.

The one thing that could ever break her was him. And that scared him the most.


End file.
